Why is the candidate running for President? Do they have a history of public service? Do they really have America’s best interest in mind?

Polls/Surveys – Is It Gallup or Undefined

When you hear a percentage mentioned, whether it’s by a candidate, a news station, a publication or blog, make sure it’s attached to a legitimate poll and defines the cross-section of people questioned. Polls can be skewed to validate a person’s viewpoint. If you poll 20 of your friends, they will say you’re a great person. What happens if you poll exes, are they going to give you the same review?

TV Stations Have Political Leanings

A TV Stations news and the programs they broadcast host people who support their views. They will also poll people who back their opinions. Keep this in mind as you watch TV and as you read articles about the elections. If it mentions a specific TV station survey, again, is it official or slanted?

Make Sure To Fact-Check

Politicians will exaggerate. As everyone knows, America’s first amendment is freedom of speech. Sometimes candidates will propagate fabrications about other candidates with negative advertising. Remember, just because the targeted politician ignores it, doesn’t make them guilty. Also, just because something negative is repeated and reiterated and repeated again does not make it true.

Bullies Do Not Make Good Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt’s expression, “Walk softly and carry a big stick” are words to strongly consider. The loudest person in the room may get the most attention, but this may actually mean that they are the weakest candidate. What candidates have diplomacy and executive qualities? Think about the last 30 years of US Leaders. Who brought America up and who brought America down? Then draw your own conclusions.

Intelligent Candidate or Not

It’s true anyone can be President in America, if you’re at least 35 years old and a natural born US citizen. No one ever says it, but in order to be President, you must be intelligent. As the election approaches, think about the smart Presidents and the not-so-smart ones. Who did the better job?

Big Picture vs. Extreme Thinking

A President cannot have extreme views. The old cliché applies here: Are they part of the solution/the present and the future or are they part of the problem/stuck in the past?

Track Record, Track Record, Track Record

Just because a candidate makes a promise doesn’t mean they will keep it. Who has followed through in the past and helped make the United States and the world a better place and who has not?

House of Representatives And The Senate

Keeping election promises also depends on The Congress and The Senate. These offices are very important. A candidate may make election declarations, but will the Senate and House pass bills, or will they (for political reasons) just block a President who belongs to the opposite party?

Religion Belongs in the Place of Worship

Separation of Church and State. If you want to be Christian or Catholic or Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist or Lutheran or 100’s of other religions, then be them, but candidates should not interject their religious beliefs into the government.

Are you registered? Contact your local election board if you need to register or if you’ve moved since the last time you voted. Do vote in the mid-term elections. You can affect the future of your country. Your vote does matter. And for young voters or just young at heart, here are 10 Reasons why you should vote.

Mark Twain’s famous words, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” could also be applied to The Middle Class economic problem. Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything to change it.

The reason: “It’s complicated.” Getting political parties to align on the best methodology to create growth in this economic drought is like trying to move a 20-ton lead balloon. All the helium in the world won’t make it fly, and it will take an act of God to get it to budge, even incrementally.

Also, most politicians won’t commit to the difficult fixes, for fear of losing their corporate and special interest groups’ financial support.

It’s a tightrope walk for a politician if they want to get elected. Someone needs to step up and take responsibility. 2016 Presidential candidates have made promises to amend trade laws, rewrite tax codes, build infrastructure, bring training back to the U.S., and make college tuition free, but these suggestions won’t create jobs, or put more money in Americans’ pockets.

Remember, for a bill to become law, it has to pass through the House of Representatives and the Senate. Lately there’s a lot of gridlock, and all the Executive Orders in the world won’t guarantee a sure thing. They can be contested in a court of law.

Also, these promises won’t help the underemployed or the unemployed. The lower and middle class spend all their income just to live. According to The New York Times, the last three decades have been focused on gains of income for the highest earners. Salaries in some companies haven’t changed for the middle class jobs in 20 years.

Here are a few of the problems that need to be addressed?

TAXES

Rewriting Tax Codes is a great idea, but changing these codes won’t help unless people are employed.

EDUCATION

Student Loans

There should be a cap on how much past, current and future student loans’ interest can compound to increase the debt.

As for the current student loan debt, individuals who graduated 20 years ago or more should have loans forgiven. The student loan bubble is much like the housing bubble; these loans are now being shuffled from one lender to another for pennies on the dollar, but costing the middle class stress and economic suffering.

Civil Service Incentive

For those who just graduated, perhaps a program very much like the GI bill can be created for civil service, whereby people volunteer for a small salary. In exchange they receive college tuition.

Child care – A childcare program can be part of the government civil service incentive, which is mentioned above. This will also help lower and middle income families, who cannot afford other care.

Training

There are many non-profit organizations who offer free training programs to lower income families, immigrants and ex-cons. Perhaps, some of these organizations could expand their roles in the community by offering training to the middle class as well.

BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE

States and cities use sales taxes to build infrastructure. The middle class pays for this through regressive taxes. There is no easy answer for this. Highways, roads and bridges need to be built.

HEALTH INSURANCE

The Affordable Care Act is good, but needs amending. It has helped make healthcare available to some who may not have otherwise had it, has cut back costs to emergency room visits, and made it accessible to those with pre-existing conditions.

However, there are middle class Americans who can’t afford it, but make too much money to get assistance. Also, when tax time comes around, they are penalized. Thus, just taking away more of their income.

Additionally, there are individuals who take advantage of the system, because of the pre-existing condition clause. They only purchase it when they have health issues, and then cancel when they no longer require it. This raises costs to others.

LABOR LAWS

Rewrite the Labor Laws. Affirmative Action needs to be reinstated. It’s essential companies be required to hire qualified Americans from all walks of life. There has been a hiring imbalance for the last 25 years.

Labor Union – Unions are being busted. They are used in collective bargaining to negotiate fairness for those who belong. Some are known for underhanded, shady behavior. They definitely need to be regulated, but they certainly should not be dismantled.

Foreign companies with offices in the U.S. sometimes hire foreign workers. Often these employees actually commute back and forth to their countries. While working in the United States, they should be required to live here on a permanent basis, thus putting money into our economy.

While people from all over the world should be allowed to work and live in the U.S., a ceiling on how many foreign contract workers a company can employ must be instituted. Often companies will hire green card workers in deference to American employees, because they will take lower wages.

NAFTA AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

According to The Council on Foreign Relations, there are pros and cons to NAFTA and other foreign trade agreements. These agreements are both economic and foreign policy issues and are meant to benefit all involved. This is what makes them such highly debated topics. They are complicated and used for diplomacy as well as economic sanctions.

Changing these agreements is not a simple undertaking, and not as easy as writing up a business agreement.

THE AMERICAN DREAM

There are so many questions. There is no easy fix for the middle class or the United States economy. Even if a candidate makes a promise, there are no guarantees.

Which candidate will do what’s right for the country?

Which candidate will make America great again?

To quote Mark Twain, “I was seldom able to see an opportunity, until it had ceased to be one.”

Let’s hope the right candidate wins, and carpe diem, so we all can reclaim The American Dream.

Where the political landscape stands on this Super Tuesday is in limbo. Candidates are high on hopes that the up-for-grab delegates from each of the 11 states will belong to them.

There will be fodder shed, in particular for the Republican Party whose campaign efforts have seemed more like a High School Student Counsel Election than a U.S. Presidential one. With all the sideshow, up-close-and personal antics, where bickering and airing of dirty laundry has been the rule, they have more than worn out their welcome of their 15 minutes of fame.

Pundits and reporters alike have given their views on what each candidate will need to survive. The Republican Party is trying to regain composure after being Trumpetized. Trump’s constant guilt-free attitude and recent refusal to disavow David Duke has given them fuel to withdraw their support.

Who will rock and rule Super Tuesday isn’t really a mystery. It’s no secret that Hillary Clinton will come out on top for Democrats. Trump will probably still win, despite the hard core humiliation message the Republican Party is trying to send to him.

Republicans, however, should hope for Kasich, as he is their only viable candidate, sane and Presidential in the sea of their insanity.

There are 449 days until the 2016 Presidential Election. Here are 11 things to think about as November 8, 2016 approaches.

Candidate Intent

Why is the candidate running for President? Do they have a history of public service? Do they really have America’s best interest in mind?

Polls/Surveys – Is It Gallup or Undefined

When you hear a percentage mentioned, whether it’s by a candidate, a news station, a publication or blog, make sure it’s attached to a legitimate poll and defines the cross-section of people questioned. Polls can be skewed to validate a person’s viewpoint. If you poll 20 of your friends, they will say you’re a great person. What happens if you poll exes, are they going to give you the same review?

TV Stations Have Political Leanings

A TV Stations news and the programs they broadcast host people who support their views. They will also poll people who back their opinions. Keep this in mind as you watch TV and as you read articles about the elections. If it mentions a specific TV station survey, again, is it official or slanted?

Make Sure To Fact-Check

Politicians will exaggerate. As everyone knows, America’s first amendment is freedom of speech. Sometimes candidates will propagate fabrications about other candidates with negative advertising. Remember, just because the targeted politician ignores it, doesn’t make them guilty. Also, just because something negative is repeated and reiterated and repeated again does not make it true.

Bullies Do Not Make Good Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt’s expression, “Walk softly and carry a big stick” are words to strongly consider. The loudest person in the room may get the most attention, but this may actually mean that they are the weakest candidate. What candidates have diplomacy and executive qualities? Think about the last 30 years of US Leaders. Who brought America up and who brought America down? Then draw your own conclusions.

Intelligent Candidate or Not

It’s true anyone can be President in America, if you’re at least 35 years old and a natural born US citizen. No one ever says it, but in order to be President, you must be intelligent. As the election approaches, think about the smart Presidents and the not-so-smart ones. Who did the better job?

Big Picture vs. Extreme Thinking

A President cannot have extreme views. The old cliché applies here: Are they part of the solution/the present and the future or are they part of the problem/stuck in the past?

Track Record, Track Record, Track Record

Just because a candidate makes a promise doesn’t mean they will keep it. Who has followed through in the past and helped make the United States and the world a better place and who has not?

House of Representatives And The Senate

Keeping election promises also depends on The Congress and The Senate. These offices are very important. A candidate may make election declarations, but will the Senate and House pass bills, or will they (for political reasons) just block a President who belongs to the opposite party?

Religion Belongs in the Place of Worship

Separation of Church and State. If you want to be Christian or Catholic or Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist or Lutheran or 100’s of other religions, then be them, but candidates should not interject their religious beliefs into the government.

Are you registered? Contact your local election board if you need to register or if you’ve moved since the last time you voted. Do vote in the mid-term elections. You can affect the future of your country. Your vote does matter. And for young voters or just young at heart, here are 10 Reasons why you should vote.